Council accepts mayor's appeal on yellowtail flounder

NEW BEDFORD — New England's fisheries managers agreed Wednesday that what they view as flawed science shouldn't be the basis of a drastic rollback in the amount of yellowtail flounder the fleet may catch next year.

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By STEVE URBON

southcoasttoday.com

By STEVE URBON

Posted Nov. 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By STEVE URBON

Posted Nov. 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

NEW BEDFORD — New England's fisheries managers agreed Wednesday that what they view as flawed science shouldn't be the basis of a drastic rollback in the amount of yellowtail flounder the fleet may catch next year.

The New England Fisheries Management Council, meeting in Newport, R.I., took two votes affirming the view that the quota should be 1,150 metric tons in 2013, rather than the 215 metric tons that a joint U.S.-Canada committee recommended.

Since yellowtail is regularly taken as bycatch in both the groundfish and scallop fishery, cutting the quota sharply would force fishing to end prematurely.

In the words of Mayor Jon Mitchell, who wrote to the council of his concerns, this would "inflict broad, irreparable damage on the fishing industry based on what one could hardly claim is the best available science."

He implored the council to act to avoid "ruinous consequences" of excessive cutbacks and to work with Canada to obtain assessments that are scientifically valid.

Now the issue moves to the Transboundary Management Guidance Committee, which oversees the fishery at the border and which had set the low quota based on its own science. It will be asked to set aside what the council views as flawed science and instead accept the recommendations of the council's Scientific and Statistical Committee. That would be to leave the quotas where they are this year, along with ending the targeted fishing of yellowtail, leaving only bycatch.

John Haran, who manages Sector XIII, a group of groundfish boats with members from New Bedford to Greenport, N.Y., was at Wednesday's meeting and said he could not say what the effects of the council's votes would be on local fishermen.

"We really won't know the quotas until January," he said, before adding that new councilor Laura Ramsden Foley, who voted in support of the higher quotas, was "a breath of fresh air."

There is no timetable for meeting with the Transboundary Management Guidance Committee. But council spokeswoman Pat Fiorelli told The Standard-Times that after Wednesday's votes, it will almost certainly happen soon.